The Life in a Deck of Cards
by LonelyArtist
Summary: Spades is in a desperate battle for world domination. They take the other suits over one by one. Will they move on to the other games?
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I'm not sure what there is to disclaim, but I'm disclaiming it.

**The Life in a Deck of Cards**

**by L.A.**

The Queen of Spades looked out the window. The grass was green, the birds were singing. But, somehow, she felt she was not complete. All day long she would sit by this window. She was not in charge like her husband, but she was never asked to do any work. All day long she would sit and look out that castle window. Her only entertainment was watching the soldiers 2-10 march by once a day.

_Maybe I should start a war..._

At least it would offer entertainment. She was constantly arguing with the Queen from the kingdom of Clubs for the title of "Black Queen." Maybe it was time she turned this verbal battle into one of more physical measures. She rang her bell and soon a soldier (number 5, irrelevantly) was at the doorway. "Yes! Your majesty!"

"That will be quite enough, soldier. Please bring your commander to my quarters. I wish to have a word with her."

The soldier saluted and ran off. About fifteen minutes later, the woman the Queen had requested was there. She was dressed in loose-fitting peasant clothes. "Yes, your majesty?"

The Queen turned from her window and smiled at the young woman. "Yes, Ace. As you are well aware, you have been given your rank because of your skill in battle."

The woman curtsied. "Yes, your majesty. Have I failed you somehow?"

The Queen shook her head. "No, Ace. In fact, I'm congratulating you for achieving that position."

The woman looked up at her. "But your majesty? I was given that rank two years ago."

"Yes. But it was such an achievement I felt it needed further congratulations." She stood up and walked around the room. "As you know, traditional armies don't allow women into their ranks, let alone given your rank."

"Yes, your majesty."

"But our kingdom, as well as our three neighbors, is too small to be prejudiced. We have only 13 subjects of our kingdom, including the royal family. Everyone who is not of royalty is recruited into the military."

"Yes, your majesty."

The Queen clasped her hands and turned to face the woman. "I want to change that."

"How, your majesty? Our only married couple is too old to have children."

The Queen smiled. "No, Ace. I want to take over the other kingdoms."

"Your majesty! We have but 13 in the whole _kingdom_! The kingdoms surrounding ours have up to one hundred in the front lines alone!"

The Queen smiled. "I have a plan, Ace, don't worry. First, we take over the nearest kingdoms. They are the same size as ours. If I supply my son, Jack, into your military, as well, we should have a fair chance."

"But that still only leaves us with 52!"

"Yes. But we will win over all the kingdoms in the land of Games, if we can achieve the help of the two most powerful men alive."

"You mean--?"

The Queen turned back to face out the window. "Yes, Ace. The Jokers."

**To be continued...**


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I did not invent solitaire. All rights belong to whomever invented the card game. If you're talking about the computer version, I'm thinking Microsoft. They made just about everything computer-related.

**chp. 2**

"C'mon, soldiers!" Ace's voice carried well over the training field. "Give me fifty more pushups without complaint and I'll do twice as much as you've done today!"

Ace smiled as the soldiers quickly stopped complaining and started their fifty pushups in unison. "One! Two! Three!"

Ace flexed her muscles and readied herself to do three hundred push-ups. Suddenly one soldier in front collapsed onto the ground. "Ten! Soldier Ten! Are you alright?" Ace strode over to her weakest soldier, a nine year old girl who, like the others, was only called by her rank. Ten was the lowest. Ace had argued with Prince Jack many times over her enlistment. She was the youngest soldier in the rank, twice as young as the second youngest, an eighteen year old boy with a rank of seven. She called to said soldier. "Seven! Get Ten to the Medic, fast!"

The boy was grateful for the rest and jumped up. "Yes, ma'am!" He saluted, then ran and hoisted the girl up onto his shoulder. Ace winced but said nothing as Ten's head bounced as Seven ran. The nurse at the Medic was the Queen herself. She had some basic practice in medicine, and was certified to do simple things like mend wounds and nurse the sick. If anyone were to get seriously sick, the kingdom of Hearts' soldier Three had advanced skills, and was able to help broken bones and prescribe medicine. But seeing as how they were training for a war, it would be bad if anyone more than passed out.

Ace blew a whistle around her neck. "Okay, soldiers! I'll let this slide! But because of this incident I'm taking off fifty pushups for myself!" She knew it was heartless, that it wasn't Ten's fault, but if she showed a soft side, they'd walk all over her. The remaining soldiers, all men except for soldiers Five and Six, held in their groans and continued their pushups.

When the last soldier had completed his one hundred and fiftieth pushup, Ace put her hands on her hips. "Okay, soldiers! I'm all set to do two hundred and fifty pushups! That's one hundred more than you had to do! Now give me two laps around the the castle while I'm doing that! You should all be done by the time I've gotten to two hundred! Move!"

Ace watched for about a minute as the soldiers groaned and started jogging. "You can go faster than that!" As Ace dropped down and started pushing herself up and down from the wet morning grass, she thought of the people's predicament. The few people besides the royal family, including herself, had come to the Kingdom of Spades because of the total equality that was promised, and given. But most found it to be a bad thing, after they had arrived. This was not a democratic kingdom. People were forced into the army, and because of the equality, age and gender were simply not considered. In the other kingdoms, too, if there was an infant, it would be put into training. Gentle training, such as lifting stuffed animals as if they were barbells, but training none-the-less.

In most of the four kingdoms in the Territory of Cards, most of the people (once again, except the royal family) had no family (except two elderly people, Two and Six). The nine year-old girl, for example, had run away from a different land, and came to find herself here, in Spades. She lived, like the rest of the people, in a little tent on the outskirts of the castle. She lived in a tent with soldier Five. Five was around thirty years young. She had lost a little girl of her own, back outside the Territory of Cards, outside the whole Land of Games, who would have been nine as well, had she survived. She cooked for Ten, and made sure she got plenty of sleep, and taught her basic reading and mathematics.

"If you don't learn to read or do math," Ace had heard Five telling Ten, "you'll never make it out of this place or even live to be my age."

That wasn't exactly true. Ace herself, already twenty-five, couldn't do either very well. She knew enough to read and write her own name, and she knew her letters. But she couldn't read the many books in the library that soldier Two ran. And she could add well enough, at least to double digits, and sometimes higher. But she couldn't multiply or divide at all, and could only subtract single digits.

She had once sat in with Ten and listened to Five teach. But by then Ten was far ahead of Ace, and Ace had gone home little more than confused.

After her push-ups, Ace stood up and looked toward the castle. If they won this war, or even lost it, they would be part of a bigger kingdom, in all likelihood all four of the smaller ones put together. Hopefully there'd be someone in the other kingdoms who was a certified teacher, and could teach Ace as if she were a first-grader.

**To be continued...**

_Okay. I've gotten one review. But seeing as how it's Solitaire...that was two more than I expected. Yes. I expected a negative review._

_--L.A.!_


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Solitaire. All ideas are my own, thank you very much.

_Okay people! Time for Chapter 3, which is really Chapter 2! Wait. It's time for Chapter 2, which is really Chapter 3. Wait. No never mind. You know what I'm talking about. If you don't, deal with it. Over and out!_

**chp. 3**

Ace blew her whistle. "Okay, soldiers! Today we'll do some actual training!"

Soldier Four called out. "What have we been doing before?!"

Ace yelled back. "We've been training for training! And that's five demerits more under your belt, soldier!"

Soldier Four saluted and continued to listen.

"Soldiers!" Ace called over the field. "Has the Queen told you of the war that is soon at hand?"

There was some muttering, and shakes of heads.

"The Queen has declared that we are to attack the rest of the Territory of Cards! We, if at all possible, are to take over! We are to win over the Territory of Cards! We are to crush the enemy, enslave the royal families, and add their people to our own population! Can I hear a 'huzzah!'?"

The people were silent.

"Come on soldiers! Where's your enthusiasm?"

Soldier Ten, up in the front, spoke. "Ma'am. We don't want to fight our neighbors. Why are we doing this?"

Ace shook her head. "I don't know, darling. But the Queen has decared it. So I will train you all to fight." Ace picked up the ten swords by her feet. "Come form a single-file line in order of rank, and will give you the appropriate sword for your height and strength. Highest rank first!"

Before they all lined up, Ace took her own sword and threw it to the side, in order to keep it from being given away. It stuck in the ground, with the hilt up. Soldier Two came to the front, and Ace looked through the swords for the one marked "2" for him. Two was an old man, but he had experience, so he was given the second-highest rank. Ace took out his sword, a light one that would be easy for him to carry. Three was a 35 year young man. He was the strongest of all, and he got a very heavy and powerful sword. Three walked off with it as if it were nothing.

Four was short, and he was given a sword about two feet long. Five was tall, and she was given a long, thin sword, that cold probably fit in a slit only the tiniest of size. Six was old and weak, and she was given a sword even lighter than her husband's. Seven, the young man, was given a heavy sword, perhaps a bit too heavy, but he went off as if it were the lightest thing ever. Eight and Nine, the twins, were each given identical swords, but of course they bickered about whose was sharper, heavier, longer, and all around better.

Last, Soldier Ten came up and saluted. Ace took the last sword and held it out to Ten. It was only a foot long, and thick but not heavy. It was hardly sharp. Ace had requested this sword specifically. Ten was not ready for a full sized sword. She was hardly ready for this. Ace had argued heavily with Jack. Jack was so stubborn and hard headed. He wanted to make sure this little girl fought like his strongest men. Ace had had to give him _money_ to order this sword, and she had to pay for it out of her own pocket as well.

Ten reached up to take the sword, but Ace pulled it back. The others were all clanging their swords together, and testing out the weight and feel. Ace leaned down to talk to Ten.

"Soldier Ten. I am not saying you are not willing to fight, I'm sure you are. You have a spirit like no other. But I'm not sure you'll fare well in this battle."

Ten looked up at Ace. "I want to fight for my kingdom, ma'am. I want to be one of the few that _belongs_ in the new Kingdom of Spades. I want to rule over the people who we take over."

"Didn't you say earlier that you didn't want to fight our neighbors?"

"I did, ma'am. But if there is war, I do not want to hide in my tent and listen to the battle. If people are threatening our people, I want to defend them."

Ace stood up straight. "You realize you may not survive?"

"I do, ma'am. But if we lose this battle, I will be taken prisoner and possibly killed anyway. I don't want to die knowing I could have helped."

"You are very intelligent for a girl your age, Ten." Ace smiled and gave the sword to Ten, who took it gratefully. "May God be with you."

**To be continued...**

_This story doesn't really have a time setting. Mostly it's got Medieval setting, but there's parts in here that are more modern. Like the military training, and Ace's whistle. But the people dress like Medieval peasants. I know I didn't describe that very well. The women wear brown dresses, the men wear brown shirts and pants. And there's no seasons, I don't think. We'll find out later._

_--L.A.!_


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaim: I disclaim solitaire if there's anybody in the world who claims it.

_Okay people. It's the fourth slash third chapter. I've actually gotten a quite a few reviews for solitaire. Four reviews for three chapters? Pretty good, I think._

**chp. "4"**

Ace stood among her troops, a mere soldier now, as they listened to their new general, Jack. He spoke as if he had ten thousand already inspired soldiers taking up the field, not ten sleepy citizens examining their swords. Ace was the only one who stood at attention. "People!" Jack cried, then in a bit softer voice, "Soldiers. We stand here today on the first day of a great war! We are off to obliterate the Territory of Cards! We will make them ours!" Ace heard yawning in the background. If she was up there giving the speech, she'd be sure to inspire her troops. "We are first off to Clubs, our nearest neighbor. They are not expecting us! We will take them by surprise, and defeat them, and add them to our army!"

_You know you won't take them by surprise if you shout loud enough to hear them._

"So, troops. Are you ready for this?"

Ace, to try to inspire her troops herself, clicked her heels together, snapped her spine straight, and thrust a salute. "Sir, yes, sir!" She only heard Two help with it, with a little "Sir...yes...sir..." She snapped her hand down back to her waist.

Jack nodded, oblivious to the lack of enthusiasm. Or perhaps he was choosing to ignore it. "Very good. I'm off to the castle to suit up. Ace, help your soldiers here do the same."

Ace did the same salute. "Sir, yes, sir!" As Jack left, the other soldiers started to head to their tents to get into battle gear. "Wait a minute, soldiers," Ace said, without turning around to greet them. "Stay here." She walked up to the box that Jack had stood on. "I'm going to give you a better speech." She watched her soldiers stand and kick the grass.

"We are about to begin a great war. I don't know what this war will be like. Perhaps it will be straight-forward, and we will fight with swords. Perhaps Clubs is rich enough to have arrows, slingshots, and catapults. Or worse. Or perhaps they are poor. And can fight only with clubs and their own fists. Either way, we must fight to our best ability. Win or lose, we must battle as if we are defending our homeland, and they are the invaders. Because, win or lose, Clubs will become our homeland. Whether the people of Spades or the people of Clubs are the rulers is what we're deciding today. I don't know what Jack will do, but hear this, soldiers. I will do the best I can. No! The best we all can! To spare each and every one of you. I will not let myself rest until each of you are safe home, or safe in the enemy's home, alive. If you die, I will never rest until you are safely buried with a plaque of honor, to put your soul to rest. Because I will not rest until each and every one of you have. Now. Soldiers. Citizens of Spades. Are you ready?"

All nine soldiers clicked their heels, straightened their spines, saluted, and yelled, "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!"

Ace lifted her sword into the air. "Are you ready?!"

All nine soldiers lifted their swords in the air. They gave a thunerous roar for such a small group. "Ma'am! Yes! Ma'am!!" And they cheered. The few people who owned hats threw them in the air.

"Then let's suit up, people. Girls come with me. Two, you take the men and help them get their outfits." Two saluted and led the majority of the army off to his tent. Ace went off to her tent, where she had set up a kind of barrier with laundry all around for the girls to change behind.

The uniform was pretty basic. There were black pants. Over the pants leather armor was to be bound around, like soccer shin pands kind of, on the thighs as well. A leather corset was worn across the torso. Men wore the same, only the corset wasn't made to fit a girl's figure. Over the corset was a black long-sleeved shirt. Over the shirt went a chain metal jersey, with the emblem of a Spade on it. On the arms, under the shirt, went similar armor as that on the legs. A shoulder plate went over the head to fit on the shoulders and neck, preventing loss of arms and decapitation. It was then fitted to wrap around the whole neck, still allowing room to turn the head. On the head was a silver helmet, no visor. Women were also required to wear a black skirt over the pants and armor. It only went to the knees, so nobody complained to badly.

Ace helped the women soldiers into the uniforms. Five complained of the helmet wrecking her hair. Ace paid no mind, and stuffed Five's short, blonde, curly hair into the helmet. Six complained that the corset made it hard to breathe. Ace explained that it wouldn't matter too much, as they'd be fighting other women, perhaps also in corsets, who would sympathize and maybe go easy on them. Ten had to be given a man's corset, as she had no figure, and she complained of this. Ace explained that as soon as she grew some boobs, she'd give her a woman's. Ten took offense, but said nothing of it.

Ace got into her uniform, exactly the same, only with a plume on the helmet for her soldiers to better identify her in battle. They came out, about the same time the men, who hadn't bothered with a barrier to change behind, were finished. They stood before Jack, in a beautiful, full metal suit of medieval armor. He rode the only horse in the kingdom, a white male whom was the King's pride and joy.

He gave some speech about how he would not be battling with them. He would be giving orders to make efficient the battle.

As Jack trotted off to the battlefield, with Ace and her soldiers marching far enough behind, Ace said, "Don't follow his orders in battle, troops. He is only good for ordering his dinner. Listen to me. For this is not dinner. This is war."

**To be continued...**

_Okay, that's it folks. Next chapter will be the actual war. I don't know how good a writer I am to do this, but I'm going to try to make it as descriptive and violent as possible. So be warned. It'll probably be something cheesy, though. I've never written a war scene._


	5. Chapter 4

_Hi, everyone! I know this is long in coming, please forgive me! So, I've got this crazy idea, right? I'm thinking of maybe putting this onto __.com__. In case you don't know, that's the other site that the fiction gods have, but it's for original fiction. Do you think that's a good idea? I've looked through some of the rules, and it seems okay. This story doesn't really fit in "Solitaire," anyway, and I don't think anyone owns a copyright on cards. Tell me what you think, okay?_

**The Life in a Deck of Cards**

**Chapter Four**

Jack and the King's horse were still bouncing along ahead of the rest of Spades, their many medals and decorations doing nothing for the element of surprise. Ace had organized her soldiers behind him on the walk so far.

Ten stood at the very front, her little legs marching almost in time with the rest of the troops. She held the black cloth with the silver spade in the center--Spades' official flag--on a pole almost as tall as herself, waving it involuntarily.

Nine and Eight, all twenty-one years of them, stood behind her, side by side. They each had a drum strapped around their neck, resting on their midsection. Nine had a bass drum, and he pounded out every other pace. Eight had a snare drum, and he peddled out their march theme, _tum-tum-tiddledy…tum-diddledy-doo…tum-tum-tiddledy…_

Young Seven strutted while his marching mate, old Six, marched feebly. Seven was quietly chatting with Six, once in awhile pointing to his chest or pantomiming some sort of event. Ace couldn't hear them, but she had a suspicion that he was trying to win her acceptance. Six didn't take too well to young whippersnappers (Ace included), and Seven was the youngest of the adults.

Five carried her rapier-like sword in her hand, its point angled towards the ground, while everyone else kept theirs in its sheath. She was skittish at heart, but had a cool mind when it came to attacking, so Ace let her do so. Besides, she was marching alongside Four, the short man with a strong admiration for tall females. At thirty-six, he was six years older than Five, and thus had her at a disadvantage. But with Five's sword safely unsheathed, she was safe.

Three and Two marched in front of Ace. They talked to each other about the people they had left behind coming to Spades. Two had brought his wife Six with him, but he had left his two daughters and his grandson. Three hadn't a wife, but--as he shamefacedly admitted--he had a son that was still with his mother.

Ace herself walked behind the line. She had two very large cloths stuck in her small shoulder bag. One was black, the other white. If they were winning the battle, she would pull out the black cloth to replace Spades' flag, and march to the other army to negotiate surrender on their side. The white flag was in case they were losing, and wished to offer their own surrender. Jack had told her not to bring it, but she wouldn't let his arrogances let her helpless troops die at Clubs' hands.

The line was approaching the last hill; Ace gently called for Eight to stop the drumming. He did, though Nine kept the beat, only at a much softer volume, as he had been instructed. Jack kept prancing along, not caring about the noise he made. _Fine,_ Ace thought, _you can be the one who tests for arrows._

But even he stopped before going over the curve. He halted his horse and jumped off his back, making as much noise as all of Ace's troops together. He turned to look at them, and put his hands on his hips. "We don't know what these barbarians have waiting for us," he declared in a louder voice than Ace would have liked, "The sun is going down, and I think it would be better if we camped here tonight, watching the enemy to better understand their tactics."

Ace admitted to herself that that wasn't the worst idea, but she would have stopped another hill back if she had known about this plan the whole time. She knew this was the last hill, but she couldn't remember from her early Geography lessons how far away the nearest tents of Clubs was from that hill. For all she knew, the village could hear them breathing.

Jack took a bundle that was hitched to his horse's rump. He unrolled it, revealing a sleeping mat. He stretched over it and fell asleep.

Ace took her pocket watch out of her shoulder bag. It was the only portable clock in the kingdom, and she was proud of it. She had brought it from wherever she had come from; she had been left in Spades at the age of three and couldn't remember anything else.

The time was seven o'clock p.m. "Okay, everyone," Ace whispered, so as not to alert Clubs or wake Jack. "You may not be tired yet, but we may as well rest. I'll be putting us on two-hour watches, two at a time. We'll go in order of rank, lowest to highest. Ten, you'll be first. Watch the village to see if anything important happens. Try to find out what kind of weapons they have. If anything urgent happens, wake me. In two hours, wake Eight and Seven. It'll be everyone's own responsibility to know when to switch. Here's my watch." Ace tossed it into Nine's eager hands. "Make sure it gets back to me in the morning."

The soldiers stretched out on the grass, some leaning against the steep hill. Some closed their eyes, others quietly whispered or played with a deck of cards they had brought with. Ace pulled off her helmet and laid her soft bag on top of it. She lay down on the ground and put her head on that. She quickly fell into an exhausted sleep.

Ace was woken up at four a.m. by Two. "It's time to get up, Madam. You have to watch, now."

Ace was glad that she hadn't been woken up for any other reason; it meant both lack of problems and extra sleep. She pulled her head up, which was considerably more sore than it had been when she fell asleep. Her bag had fallen out from under her and she had been sleeping on the metal helmet. She pushed herself up from the damp pasture and walked to the crest of the hill.

Everyone besides Two and herself were fast asleep. Ace clapped Two on the shoulder and whispered a good job. "Try to fall asleep as quickly as possible now. I'll be waking everyone up in an hour." She put the helmet on her head.

"Yes madam." Two handed Ace's pocket watch back to its owner.

Ace made sure Two had stretched out and closed his eyes before she crept over to Jack. He was snoring fairly loudly and showed no signs of waking. To be safe, though, Ace pulled out a little vial from her pocket and poured the contents in Jack's open mouth. It was a powder that she had made of a special herb that was said to help sleep. Ace didn't want Jack waking up and ruining the battle.

Ace took position at the crest of the hill. She leaned on her shoulder and kept her face just high enough to see the target kingdom. This was the first time she had seen Clubs up close, and she couldn't deny that she was impressed. She wondered if they had somehow caught wind of Spades' coming attack, or if they were always this ready for battle.

The tents were set up in a wide circle around the castle, with several yards between each other. In every empty space between the tents there was a trench lined with barbed wire; undoubtedly the trenches were well stocked with defensive weapons.

Ace momentarily closed her eyes. This battle would be bitter.

Ace gave her soldiers an extra quarter hour to sleep, and woke them at five fifteen. To keep as quite as possible, she woke them each with a gentle shake of the shoulder instead of calling them awake all at once. The nine soldiers and their leader gathered around a very small fire to talk about the battle plans.

"I think our best bet is to sneak in past their tents and kill the royal family," Seven said.

"That's not very nice," Ten scolded.

"It's not very possible, either," Ace said. "There's no way the ten of us could break down the doors without waking the soldiers."

"But is it possible to get in at all, even if we did wake them?" Two asked.

"I saw a small window that wasn't barred," Eight suggested. "We could probably throw Ten up and she could squeeze through."

"We're not sending that little girl to kill the royal family by herself!" This was Five, who had grabbed Ten's head and hugged it protectively.

"Well, no," Eight corrected himself, "we wouldn't do that. She could unlock the doors for us and let us in."

"That's better than anything I can think of," Ace relented. "Ten, would you be willing to do that?"

"Uh-huh," the young girl said, still smothering from Five's embrace. "It'd be an honor!"

Ace laughed. "Ok, that's settled, then. And hopefully we won't have to kill anyone if we can get a surrender. Let's go quickly. Whoever's in charge of the gardens and animals here will be waking up soon."

"What about Jack, Miss Ace?" Two asked hesitantly.

"Leave him," Ace said quickly. "He'll just bungle things up." Ace stood up and dusted the wet grass off her legs. "OK, soldiers. Put your helmet on and take your sword out of its sheath. We don't want anything rattling around to wake Clubs. I'll lead. Three, Five, I want you close to me. Let's move."

The warriors quietly ran over the crest of the hill and let themselves slide down the dewy slope. At the end of the hill they transitioned smoothly back into a run, heading straight for the castle. They moved into a single-file line to run between a tent and a trench, then moving back into a blob when the passed it.

Their first obstacle was a young woman already out working in her vegetable garden with the aid of a lantern. She wore a blue dress that fit tightly at the waist but was loose at the chest and legs. She had clearly not known there would be a battle.

Before she had a chance to scream at the advancing army, Ace whispered, "Five!" Five headed the command and leapt at the woman, pinning her down to the ground with one hand over the woman's mouth and the other holding her sword against the woman's neck.

The army slowed to a stop. "You're not going to scream to your comrades, right, Club?" Five hissed in her ear. "We wouldn't like that."

The Club shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Good. You have the honor of being our war prisoner." Five ripped a piece of her skirt off her uniform and stuffed it in the woman's mouth. She picked the woman up and tossed her over her shoulder. "OK, Ace. The distraction is voided."

"Thanks, Five. Alright, let's continue."

The army continued their silent sprint to the castle, the Club still held over Five's shoulder. They made the castle wall without any trouble, and positioned themselves under the window. "Three!" Ace ordered, "Ten!"

The man swung the girl into his arms and tossed her at the window, about seven feet off the ground. Ten had been given so much of a boost that she was able to land on the window ledge without needing to pull herself up.

"Be careful, Ten!" Five called up as she lowered her captive to lean against the stone.

Ten nodded solemnly and pulled her little sword closer to her body before dropping down into the castle below.

She had only been in ten seconds when an arrow suddenly whizzed past Ace's ear and stuck in the castle wall. All nine soldiers immediately ducked down and looked for the source of the attack. They saw their attacker just as another arrow nicked Six's arm. It was a young boy who was just starting to put another arrow into his bow, and was walking closer to the group to get a better shot.

Without command from Ace, Seven jumped up and ran at the boy. He knocked the bow away with his sword and kicked the boy's feet out from under him. The boy cried out.

"Seven!" Ace roared, no longer caring to be quiet. "Now the whole kingdom knows we're here!"

Sure enough, there were shouts from the tents as the people started to wake. They all wore thin night shirts, but they all pulled a sword out of their tent with them.

The nine Spades and the eight remaining Clubs wielded their swords for battle.

**To be continued…**

_I'm so sorry I didn't put the battle scene in here like I said I would! And I'm also sorry this took so long._

_Good luck!_

_--L.A._


End file.
